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I'm stuck in a weird slacktime at work today - we turned over a bunch of projects to the printers, all newsletters are out, and basically I can either update the database or ... not.
Since what I would RATHER be doing is be at home working on the corset of insanity, I figured I could blog that project and also blog how my New Years resolutions are going.
1. Become a Nebraska Admiral.
- No progress. Does no one actually live in Nebraska? Nebraska is a lie, right?
2. Build the Lego Ultimate Millennium Falcon.
- Effectively complete. I had to do a last-minute order for some pieces that got lost during the build, and I managed to forget physics and lose three pieces that I can't find at all (though I think I had extras of all of them so I won't have to order them). It's been hard to get back into finishing it and repairing a couple places where pieces came off, because ... well, the thing is 3 feet long, weighs 20 lbs, and I don't have a convenient surface to work on it and read the instructions at the same time. Standing on a chair hovering over the stereo cabinet is less fun than it sounds like. I also need to either eBay or Bricklink the leftover and extra pieces.
3. Complete 8 garments from stash.
I sewed something! Unfortunately, it wasn't from the stash, so I'm not counting it. However, since for record-keeping purposes I determined that everything I had as of 1/1/12 was in the stash, the corset I'm working on counts. The skirt and messenger bag don't, but the coat will. (More details on this under the steampunk update.) The thing I sewed and finished was a denim jacket. I'm going to take the waistband off again and shorten the jacket by about three inches - right now it hits me at a weird place and is oddly bulgy in the front too, which shortening will also fix (it'll give me a chance to check the cut edge which I SWEAR is straight) but it is done and wearable. I'm also putting the lining back into the Sherlock Holmes coat (FOR THE THIRD TIME) and hope to actually get through that this time. We shall see. I'm currently in progress (as in, pieces cut out) on the shirt and vest for that outfit and the steampunk skirt, as well, so completing everything that I have currently cut out would give me ... four items to my goal. I had to buy the denim for the jacket, so it doesn't count.
4. Do something creative every week.
- BOY WAS THIS VAGUE. I'm realising HOW vague. I mean, I've had weeks where I counted "helping![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
graeae develop a new system for gaming" and "do a vaguely Pacific-Coast-Native doodle in meetings" as my "creative" thing. I would say that I have not met this as a weekly goal, but I actually don't think I'm all that far off from it, either. It's been an interesting exercise, and I think the thing to do to keep going with it is to document what it was that I did.
5. Get a new job.
- I've evaluated 12 places I'd like to work and bookmarked them; I've put in three apps overall (this number needs to go up) and I'm redesigning my resume because oh my god I hadn't thought about how bad it is until I redesigned my business cards. (When in danger or in doubt, redesign something.)
6. Save money.
- AHAHAHAHA TOTAL FAIL.
7. Learn about buying a house.
- I have started this! I toyed around with BECU's mortgage calculator and started getting some rough estimates based on how much I hope to be earning by the end of the year and how much I can save (see number 6 for how well THAT's gone). I want to sign up for a seminar on homebuying but haven't done anything on that yet.
8. Read 50 new books.
- Depending on how I count them, I have read like 16 or 20 books (the discrepancy is because I feel bad about calling comics trades "a book" since they don't take long to read). On the other hand, the Avengers Fear Itself book is SO BAD (both the story and the art) that I kind of want to count it as a book for each issue, in which case I've read 2 books out of six in that trade. According to my Word file, I've read 17 books. I have got to either shit or get off the pot on some of them - I'm partway through four terrible books (not including Fear Itself: Avengers) and I just don't want to read them. But at the same time, I can't stop reading them because that is giving up and giving up is not okay in this man's army.
9. Go to 6 events.
- Shit, I am going to blast past this by next month at this rate. I've gone to Emerald City Comicon, Whose Live Is It Anyway?. a Town Hall reading for Turing's Cathedral, and ... something else I've forgotten that was the same weekend as Whose Live. That was a crazy, crazy weekend, since I also saw Sherlock Holmes RIGHT before going to Whose Live. As in, I had to go to the 4:00 showing because I needed to be at the Moore by 6:30 or something bananas like that.
OH RIGHT. The other thing was Festivals of Spring - it was a selection of Chinese performing arts that I got a comp ticket for and that I found to be ultimately very meh. I liked the dancing and the Chinese Opera parts, but the rest of it left me cold because I had no fucking idea what was being said. And also, I didn't know that there was a form of Chinese singing that sounded like Western opera, but APPARENTLY SO.
10. Take a class.
- Have not done this yet, but am hoping to do so with tax refund (unlikely). I'm leaning toward either a blacksmithing class or a making-jewelry-with-fire class. I also still want to do the Wilton class, but I'm feeling no urgency about that. I would love to do the corsetting class, but it's in North Seattle at a bad time on weekdays, so no dice.
11. Try some new cuisine.
- There is progress, I guess? I feel better at sushi restaurants. Not conveyor-belt sushi which is easy but at actual proper sit-down restaurants. I should do a test run at a sushi restaurant to see how it goes. I need to get back to this, though.
12. Professional Development.
- I HAVE the geometry book. (Also the Drupal book, and an HTML5 book.) I haven't done anything with it because I tried to read it on the bus once and that was fail. I need to get back to this plan and start working on these items.
13. Top Secret.
- Possible progress. Unsure.
Except, clearly, I do.
THIS is the moment that I wish I had a phone that took pictures that I could get off of the phone and on to a blog. (Yes, my current phone will not talk to my computer that will talk to the internet, but apparently if I go out and buy some cables it'll talk to the other computer, which shat its network information during the Great Wireless Router Clusterfuck of 2011 I Think Or Maybe It Was 2010 Time Is So Vague And Chronology Bums Me Out Man and this is why I'm not allowed to do networking because I suck at it if it's not plug-and-play ANYWAY.) Because man, I have got a motherfucking vision all up in this joint.
Before I get totally into this vision, I will explain one thing about steampunk - it needs to be casualised. It won't survive if it's always formal-costume-wear, which is why I applaud the makers and innovators who incorporate elements into it rather than reserving it for cons and events. I have a lot of ability to work steam into my own daily wear, and I do think that's the direction to go.
On the other hand, there's something fun about "Sunday best", when something has that sense of importance. So with this outfit, I wanted to meet a few goals.
1. It's a complete outfit, very formal, for events that can support dress-up.
2. It has some optional built modifications (I'm particularly in love with SpaceZombie's weapon/powerpack build over on BrassGoggles). Those modifications either really work, or really-work-in-a-fictional-way, rather than being gears slapped onto something.
3. It has to be casualisable. I'm not wearing a corset to work (usually) but at the same time, I don't go to events ever, so there's no point in having something that I stick in the closet.
4. It has to be in a colourway and style that allows me to easily incorporate it into my existing wardrobe. While I certainly am aware that the Victorians had (and loved) aniline dyes, which are VERY bright, and I'm very aware of the importance of colour in civilisations we don't think of as using colour (the Parthenon wasn't white, nor were all those wonderful medieval cathedrals) I don't really wear a lot of bright, flashy colours.
4a. It has to fit into my existing specifically-steampunk clothing so that if I do wind up at a con I have the ability to mix and match.
5. Persona is optional, but it might be fun.
With all of that in mind, I set out to figure out the pieces for a spy whose cover is explorer and/or inventor, depending, in an unfortunately stereotypically steampunk colour palette, but what can I say - I live in black, brown, and olive green.
Starting from the inside! (And man, this is where pinterest is HAPPENING. Er, even if it isn't happening for me ... I apparently only pinned one thing).
1. Corset. I have some red herringbone coutil and some cream satin. This is the corset of insanity, where I'm doing ALL THE EXPERIMENTS - cable-tie boning, deliberately short busk, and, apparently, front panels off of the straight of grain because I didn't remember to just do the width adjustment on the other edge of this panel. I'm also adapting a single-layer Big Four corset into a three layer corset, so that's fun. I really am considering embroidering a cute little Cthulhu onto the corset.
Fortunately, I'm not looking for historical accuracy with this one.
2. Shirt. I have some white cotton and a McCall's pattern for a standard button-down shirt with 3/4 sleeves. Clearly, I need to shorten the sleeves, adjust the sizing overall, including dropping the bust point oh my god I never remember that, add pockets, add some buttoned tabs to the side waist because They Will Look Cool, and - oh, right, dye the fabric olive green.
3. Bustier. Simplicity released a new pattern for steampunk that I am too lazy to look for. If anyone wants to see the patterns, let me know and I'll find them, but this is enough of a screed as is. It's a coat and skirt, with a bustier under the coat. It is also apparently the new pattern - LOTS of this going around at cons. In my own fashion, I decided to skip the skirt (I got the material in the Garment District before I had the pattern, so there's enough for the coat but not for the skirt as well, so it's just as well that the skirt is stupid), adapt the bustier heavily, and modify the coat. I want to do a vest-front kind of a look, with a watch pocket and everything, or at least I did, but then I ran into this corset and I'm kind of enchanted by the strapping. This will be out of a brown faux-leather, because I accidentally got four yards of it. I R SMRT.
4. Coat. Again, from the Simplicity pattern that you can't see (okay, fine, here it is) I'm ... well, I'm crossing it with Tonner's Sinister Circus Ringmistress. So, lose the ruffle collar and do it as that super stand collar style, add fake-fur epaulets because why not, lose the pocket and the front panel below the waist and taper it more sharply back into the tail, and totally change the cuffs to match the Ring Mistress's, but maybe make them detachable.
You are all totally free to say "Bitch CRAZY" at this point. I don't blame you.
This is a brown suede outer, and probably a gold satiny lining (I bought five yards of it when the Hancock by my house was torn down, and the shirt I was going to make is bias cut, which is never, ever a good look on me, SO). I have plans to do detached lace cuffs in ecru lace, as well.
5. Pants. I don't have a pattern here. I'm considering doing a pair of slim-fit jeans-style pants in a stripe, but there's nothing right about that for my legs. If I did this, I'd do a little ruffle detailing on the back of the shin.
6. Skirt. This is the more likely piece; I'm working on a skirt in a black twill with a little bit of shine to it that will be essentially just an a-line short skirt (above the knee) with two rows of non-functional buttons down the front. I may modify that and do a ribbon down front and back, mirroring the shape of the edge (slightly angled) and do buttons halfway down the front. We'll see what I have for buttons. I'm also going to put belt loops on this like a mofo, as I like wearing belts with steampunk and could use a low loop to anchor a tilted belt.
7. Bag. I'm going to finally make my bag that will allow me to carry two computers and my tablet, all at once. It'll be an organic canvas exterior, with a leather detailing (I have some black vinyl with a nice grain, but I may get real leather or a vinyl that looks like crocodile). Two major pockets, very heavily padded (I have some quilt batting; I may get polyfoam instead) and a smaller inside pocket for the tablet and its bits and pieces, and pockets on the outside for odds and ends. The main thing with this is thinking about how to make it heavy duty - I might get some seat belting for the straps and cover that in vinyl, or I may look for something else rugged. I also have a lot of studs left over from various projects, so I may use some of those on this.
8. Hat. Because what I need is another newsboy cap. Really.
9. Harness. There's this thing in the steampunk community apparently (apparently it's a thing anyway) where people do a leather harness that sort of functions as a belt. I'm thinking that I want to do this because I spent a while trying to figure out how to make a tactical corset that held weapons and realised it wasn't going to happen, not even mock weapons, because I am curvy and knives are not. So, you know. I'm thinking a mockup in faux leather and a real one later, but I have minimal leatherworking skills so I'd need to bring those up before I wanted to saw into half a hide.
10. Other details. Not sure what that entails yet, but I'm going to go up to the Army-Navy and get some medals. Or down to the pawn shops by the base. I also have all the accoutrements from my other outfits - belts, boots, striped tights, etc. Though I would like to find a pair of vertically-striped tights in my size. I only have horizontal.
So, yes. I am a lunatic but at least I'm having fun.
But wait! There's more! I did mention that I wanted to do something in the really-working or sort of really working vein. I haven't thought of what that should be, but this is why I'm designing a persona and why I may morph it to something more mercenary, because I like the idea of something like an arm weapon with an eyepatch (I would actually have to get contacts so this is default a bad idea) modified to be a targeting system.
Since what I would RATHER be doing is be at home working on the corset of insanity, I figured I could blog that project and also blog how my New Years resolutions are going.
1. Become a Nebraska Admiral.
- No progress. Does no one actually live in Nebraska? Nebraska is a lie, right?
2. Build the Lego Ultimate Millennium Falcon.
- Effectively complete. I had to do a last-minute order for some pieces that got lost during the build, and I managed to forget physics and lose three pieces that I can't find at all (though I think I had extras of all of them so I won't have to order them). It's been hard to get back into finishing it and repairing a couple places where pieces came off, because ... well, the thing is 3 feet long, weighs 20 lbs, and I don't have a convenient surface to work on it and read the instructions at the same time. Standing on a chair hovering over the stereo cabinet is less fun than it sounds like. I also need to either eBay or Bricklink the leftover and extra pieces.
3. Complete 8 garments from stash.
I sewed something! Unfortunately, it wasn't from the stash, so I'm not counting it. However, since for record-keeping purposes I determined that everything I had as of 1/1/12 was in the stash, the corset I'm working on counts. The skirt and messenger bag don't, but the coat will. (More details on this under the steampunk update.) The thing I sewed and finished was a denim jacket. I'm going to take the waistband off again and shorten the jacket by about three inches - right now it hits me at a weird place and is oddly bulgy in the front too, which shortening will also fix (it'll give me a chance to check the cut edge which I SWEAR is straight) but it is done and wearable. I'm also putting the lining back into the Sherlock Holmes coat (FOR THE THIRD TIME) and hope to actually get through that this time. We shall see. I'm currently in progress (as in, pieces cut out) on the shirt and vest for that outfit and the steampunk skirt, as well, so completing everything that I have currently cut out would give me ... four items to my goal. I had to buy the denim for the jacket, so it doesn't count.
4. Do something creative every week.
- BOY WAS THIS VAGUE. I'm realising HOW vague. I mean, I've had weeks where I counted "helping
graeae develop a new system for gaming" and "do a vaguely Pacific-Coast-Native doodle in meetings" as my "creative" thing. I would say that I have not met this as a weekly goal, but I actually don't think I'm all that far off from it, either. It's been an interesting exercise, and I think the thing to do to keep going with it is to document what it was that I did.5. Get a new job.
- I've evaluated 12 places I'd like to work and bookmarked them; I've put in three apps overall (this number needs to go up) and I'm redesigning my resume because oh my god I hadn't thought about how bad it is until I redesigned my business cards. (When in danger or in doubt, redesign something.)
6. Save money.
- AHAHAHAHA TOTAL FAIL.
7. Learn about buying a house.
- I have started this! I toyed around with BECU's mortgage calculator and started getting some rough estimates based on how much I hope to be earning by the end of the year and how much I can save (see number 6 for how well THAT's gone). I want to sign up for a seminar on homebuying but haven't done anything on that yet.
8. Read 50 new books.
- Depending on how I count them, I have read like 16 or 20 books (the discrepancy is because I feel bad about calling comics trades "a book" since they don't take long to read). On the other hand, the Avengers Fear Itself book is SO BAD (both the story and the art) that I kind of want to count it as a book for each issue, in which case I've read 2 books out of six in that trade. According to my Word file, I've read 17 books. I have got to either shit or get off the pot on some of them - I'm partway through four terrible books (not including Fear Itself: Avengers) and I just don't want to read them. But at the same time, I can't stop reading them because that is giving up and giving up is not okay in this man's army.
9. Go to 6 events.
- Shit, I am going to blast past this by next month at this rate. I've gone to Emerald City Comicon, Whose Live Is It Anyway?. a Town Hall reading for Turing's Cathedral, and ... something else I've forgotten that was the same weekend as Whose Live. That was a crazy, crazy weekend, since I also saw Sherlock Holmes RIGHT before going to Whose Live. As in, I had to go to the 4:00 showing because I needed to be at the Moore by 6:30 or something bananas like that.
OH RIGHT. The other thing was Festivals of Spring - it was a selection of Chinese performing arts that I got a comp ticket for and that I found to be ultimately very meh. I liked the dancing and the Chinese Opera parts, but the rest of it left me cold because I had no fucking idea what was being said. And also, I didn't know that there was a form of Chinese singing that sounded like Western opera, but APPARENTLY SO.
10. Take a class.
- Have not done this yet, but am hoping to do so with tax refund (unlikely). I'm leaning toward either a blacksmithing class or a making-jewelry-with-fire class. I also still want to do the Wilton class, but I'm feeling no urgency about that. I would love to do the corsetting class, but it's in North Seattle at a bad time on weekdays, so no dice.
11. Try some new cuisine.
- There is progress, I guess? I feel better at sushi restaurants. Not conveyor-belt sushi which is easy but at actual proper sit-down restaurants. I should do a test run at a sushi restaurant to see how it goes. I need to get back to this, though.
12. Professional Development.
- I HAVE the geometry book. (Also the Drupal book, and an HTML5 book.) I haven't done anything with it because I tried to read it on the bus once and that was fail. I need to get back to this plan and start working on these items.
13. Top Secret.
- Possible progress. Unsure.
Except, clearly, I do.
THIS is the moment that I wish I had a phone that took pictures that I could get off of the phone and on to a blog. (Yes, my current phone will not talk to my computer that will talk to the internet, but apparently if I go out and buy some cables it'll talk to the other computer, which shat its network information during the Great Wireless Router Clusterfuck of 2011 I Think Or Maybe It Was 2010 Time Is So Vague And Chronology Bums Me Out Man and this is why I'm not allowed to do networking because I suck at it if it's not plug-and-play ANYWAY.) Because man, I have got a motherfucking vision all up in this joint.
Before I get totally into this vision, I will explain one thing about steampunk - it needs to be casualised. It won't survive if it's always formal-costume-wear, which is why I applaud the makers and innovators who incorporate elements into it rather than reserving it for cons and events. I have a lot of ability to work steam into my own daily wear, and I do think that's the direction to go.
On the other hand, there's something fun about "Sunday best", when something has that sense of importance. So with this outfit, I wanted to meet a few goals.
1. It's a complete outfit, very formal, for events that can support dress-up.
2. It has some optional built modifications (I'm particularly in love with SpaceZombie's weapon/powerpack build over on BrassGoggles). Those modifications either really work, or really-work-in-a-fictional-way, rather than being gears slapped onto something.
3. It has to be casualisable. I'm not wearing a corset to work (usually) but at the same time, I don't go to events ever, so there's no point in having something that I stick in the closet.
4. It has to be in a colourway and style that allows me to easily incorporate it into my existing wardrobe. While I certainly am aware that the Victorians had (and loved) aniline dyes, which are VERY bright, and I'm very aware of the importance of colour in civilisations we don't think of as using colour (the Parthenon wasn't white, nor were all those wonderful medieval cathedrals) I don't really wear a lot of bright, flashy colours.
4a. It has to fit into my existing specifically-steampunk clothing so that if I do wind up at a con I have the ability to mix and match.
5. Persona is optional, but it might be fun.
With all of that in mind, I set out to figure out the pieces for a spy whose cover is explorer and/or inventor, depending, in an unfortunately stereotypically steampunk colour palette, but what can I say - I live in black, brown, and olive green.
Starting from the inside! (And man, this is where pinterest is HAPPENING. Er, even if it isn't happening for me ... I apparently only pinned one thing).
1. Corset. I have some red herringbone coutil and some cream satin. This is the corset of insanity, where I'm doing ALL THE EXPERIMENTS - cable-tie boning, deliberately short busk, and, apparently, front panels off of the straight of grain because I didn't remember to just do the width adjustment on the other edge of this panel. I'm also adapting a single-layer Big Four corset into a three layer corset, so that's fun. I really am considering embroidering a cute little Cthulhu onto the corset.
Fortunately, I'm not looking for historical accuracy with this one.
2. Shirt. I have some white cotton and a McCall's pattern for a standard button-down shirt with 3/4 sleeves. Clearly, I need to shorten the sleeves, adjust the sizing overall, including dropping the bust point oh my god I never remember that, add pockets, add some buttoned tabs to the side waist because They Will Look Cool, and - oh, right, dye the fabric olive green.
3. Bustier. Simplicity released a new pattern for steampunk that I am too lazy to look for. If anyone wants to see the patterns, let me know and I'll find them, but this is enough of a screed as is. It's a coat and skirt, with a bustier under the coat. It is also apparently the new pattern - LOTS of this going around at cons. In my own fashion, I decided to skip the skirt (I got the material in the Garment District before I had the pattern, so there's enough for the coat but not for the skirt as well, so it's just as well that the skirt is stupid), adapt the bustier heavily, and modify the coat. I want to do a vest-front kind of a look, with a watch pocket and everything, or at least I did, but then I ran into this corset and I'm kind of enchanted by the strapping. This will be out of a brown faux-leather, because I accidentally got four yards of it. I R SMRT.
4. Coat. Again, from the Simplicity pattern that you can't see (okay, fine, here it is) I'm ... well, I'm crossing it with Tonner's Sinister Circus Ringmistress. So, lose the ruffle collar and do it as that super stand collar style, add fake-fur epaulets because why not, lose the pocket and the front panel below the waist and taper it more sharply back into the tail, and totally change the cuffs to match the Ring Mistress's, but maybe make them detachable.
You are all totally free to say "Bitch CRAZY" at this point. I don't blame you.
This is a brown suede outer, and probably a gold satiny lining (I bought five yards of it when the Hancock by my house was torn down, and the shirt I was going to make is bias cut, which is never, ever a good look on me, SO). I have plans to do detached lace cuffs in ecru lace, as well.
5. Pants. I don't have a pattern here. I'm considering doing a pair of slim-fit jeans-style pants in a stripe, but there's nothing right about that for my legs. If I did this, I'd do a little ruffle detailing on the back of the shin.
6. Skirt. This is the more likely piece; I'm working on a skirt in a black twill with a little bit of shine to it that will be essentially just an a-line short skirt (above the knee) with two rows of non-functional buttons down the front. I may modify that and do a ribbon down front and back, mirroring the shape of the edge (slightly angled) and do buttons halfway down the front. We'll see what I have for buttons. I'm also going to put belt loops on this like a mofo, as I like wearing belts with steampunk and could use a low loop to anchor a tilted belt.
7. Bag. I'm going to finally make my bag that will allow me to carry two computers and my tablet, all at once. It'll be an organic canvas exterior, with a leather detailing (I have some black vinyl with a nice grain, but I may get real leather or a vinyl that looks like crocodile). Two major pockets, very heavily padded (I have some quilt batting; I may get polyfoam instead) and a smaller inside pocket for the tablet and its bits and pieces, and pockets on the outside for odds and ends. The main thing with this is thinking about how to make it heavy duty - I might get some seat belting for the straps and cover that in vinyl, or I may look for something else rugged. I also have a lot of studs left over from various projects, so I may use some of those on this.
8. Hat. Because what I need is another newsboy cap. Really.
9. Harness. There's this thing in the steampunk community apparently (apparently it's a thing anyway) where people do a leather harness that sort of functions as a belt. I'm thinking that I want to do this because I spent a while trying to figure out how to make a tactical corset that held weapons and realised it wasn't going to happen, not even mock weapons, because I am curvy and knives are not. So, you know. I'm thinking a mockup in faux leather and a real one later, but I have minimal leatherworking skills so I'd need to bring those up before I wanted to saw into half a hide.
10. Other details. Not sure what that entails yet, but I'm going to go up to the Army-Navy and get some medals. Or down to the pawn shops by the base. I also have all the accoutrements from my other outfits - belts, boots, striped tights, etc. Though I would like to find a pair of vertically-striped tights in my size. I only have horizontal.
So, yes. I am a lunatic but at least I'm having fun.
But wait! There's more! I did mention that I wanted to do something in the really-working or sort of really working vein. I haven't thought of what that should be, but this is why I'm designing a persona and why I may morph it to something more mercenary, because I like the idea of something like an arm weapon with an eyepatch (I would actually have to get contacts so this is default a bad idea) modified to be a targeting system.
